Sword Art Online: A New World (SYOC)
by DarkViper11
Summary: Sword Art Online, a land of fantasy, filled with monsters, dungeons and treasures to be discovered, a land of adventure, where friendship and love can flourish, but also, a land of death where everything is at stake, your life, your humanity and your past, a land where you can't hope to survive for long on your own... SYOC


_Sword Art Online, a land of fantasy, filled with monsters, dungeons and treasures to be discovered, a land of adventure, where friendship and love can flourish, but also, a land of death where everything is at stake, your life, your humanity and your past, a land where you can't hope to survive for long on your own, but you can't trust everybody, since Monsters are not the only threat…_

_100 Floors_

_10,000 Players _

_1 Goal… Survival _

**Message from the Author**

Well, first of all, I'd like to thank everyone for checking this story out, and also apologize if the summary sounded a little corny… but that's another story, anyway, I've had this idea in my head for a pretty long time, I've been carefully thinking about the plot and such things, but there might be some pretty big changes depending on the OC's I receive

Let's talk a bit about my story with SAO, like most people, I was a anime-only fan for a pretty long time, I finished the Aincrad Arc in a pretty short amount of time, but I stopped watching there for a few reasons, a couple of weeks later, a friend told me about the light novels, so I read the first few volumes, but again, I didn't want to keep reading long after the Aincrad Arc, it's been a year after that and I've caught up with the anime, I think we are in Mother's Rosario?

Anyway, my writing style focuses mostly on humor and character interactions/development, and I personally find it lacking in details, action sequences and overall descriptiveness, for this story, I'll try to focus on improving on my weak spots, while also relaying a bit on my strong ones, but overall I think I can make this a pretty enjoyable ride for both you and me.

While rarely, there will be some segments with canon characters involved, and while I do plan to stick to the original storyline, I might make a couple of chapters that stray from that road, but overall, you can expect a 75 ~ 95% level of accuracy to the source material and original story, as such, you can consider this a separate story from within the same universe rather than an 'alternative' universe fan fiction, if I had to choose whether this story will stick more to the light novel or to the anime… I'd probably say the anime, mostly because of popularity.

So, without further ado…

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><p><strong>PROLOGE: The Land of Dreams <strong>

Leaning back against a white-bricked wall, I close my eyes in an attempt to rest them, I know it's a videogame and I can see properly, but I think I still miss my glasses, I open them up again and take a glance at the scenario before me, there's a lot of people gathered around the fountain at the plaza, separated into many groups of players, I haven't seen this many people gathered in the same place since… that day, I still remember it clearly…

A month ago, the man known as Kayaba Akihiko, the mastermind behind this "Death Game" successfully trapped 10,000 players inside this world, apparently, there is no way to Log Out of SAO until we players clear out all 100 floors… it's been a month, almost 2,000 players have died and we've only just found the First Floor Dungeon/Boss Room (pretty ridiculous, I must say), that's all this gathering of players is about, This is Tolbana, the closest town to the Dungeon, and this people are a… Raid Party? Right, they are holding a strategy meeting in a couple of hours.

I take a deep breath and walk away, not that I'd be of any help, they'll probably die anyway, and it's not like I can change things if I go, sure, my level and skills are pretty much above-average, but I'm not feeling up to it…

I notice a pretty large group of players (over a dozen, but not more than 20) walking towards me… no, towards the plaza, one of them bumps into me and doesn't even apologize; by their looks I'd say they are a guild.

Yeah, In SAO you either were alone, had a party, or were part of a guild, being alone had the highest risk-reward ratio, a party was so-so and a guild would leave you broke but safe, I'd say for most players who are just content with waiting until someone clears the game being in a guild was the best option, but not for me, I got used to running solo

Why did I become like that? A couple of months ago I was arguably a pretty popular guy, I played basketball, had pretty good grades, but gaming was always there for me as well, so when the NerveGear came out I was… excited, to say the least.

I pull myself out of my world of thoughts since I've found the person I was looking for, leaning against a wooden pillar outside of an inn, that person notices me and I can see the excitement on their face, I have no way of knowing if that's genuine excitement, the system automatically exaggerates facial expressions after all.

"You came!" Screams a pretty high-pitched voice, yes, this is one of the rare Female Players [2]

I take a look at the girl, she has a thin, small-looking frame, her light low-level set is green colored with light leather armor, it looks mostly as a fairly short mini-dress, she has short bright red hair and bright green eyes, not fully Japanese, but not fully Foreign either, not like I can speak, I'm only half-japanese myself.

She comes to a stop right in front of me; the difference in heights is quite perplexing if I might say so myself, I'm probably a head and a half taller than her, not like I can blame her, I'm almost 6'0 myself.

"I promised I would, didn't I" I state sarcastically, I find myself surprised at the fact that my social skills are still pretty normal.

She smiles "Well, let's get going, Rikio-san!"

I sigh "Don't use '-san', it sounds silly, Sakura"

Sakura pouts for a few seconds and then nods in agreement, a smile returning to her face, I begin walking towards the town exit, Tolbana is probably the second largest town in the first floor, there is probably 100 meters from the town center (where we are now) to any of the exits, the city is surrounded by some pretty large castle walls, which automatically made me like it the first time I saw it, it is also pretty close to the 1st Floor Labyrinth, only about 30 minutes away at walking speed.

As we walk, she begins humming a song that I kind-of recognize, but I don't care too much about it to ask, she apparently was one of the many that 'shut-down' when the death game was announced, she came back to her senses a couple of weeks ago and she's now asking me to teach her the basics… well, it's not like I have anything better to do, plus, she's probably only 12 or maybe 13, I can't leave her to die on her own, and I get to hunt and level up a bit as well.

After a couple of minutes, we are finally outside of town, along the way I noticed many male players giving me jealous glances, it very weird to see a female player, so it must be frustrating seeing one following another guy.

As soon as we step outside the castle-like gates I see a party invitation pop out in my 'screen', it's from Sakura (obviously) I turn back and see her with a pretty exaggerated grin on her face, I sigh a bit and accept it, I can now see a miniature health bar beneath mine on the top-left corner of my field of view.

"Where are we going today?" She asks excitedly, tugging the long-sleeve of my navy blue under-shirt, a light-metal chestplate over that, I'm also wearing a light-metal bracer on my left arm, and a black glove on my right one, black trousers and dark boots, I'm holding my sword on my left hip on its… scarb-… scaba-… scabbard? [1]

"There is an area on a forest nearby that spawns Skeleton Militia it's a level 5 monster, so they are probably the strongest monsters you can find outside the Labyrinth Tower" I state as I point to the large structure that connects the 1st and the still untouched 2nd floor

"Let's just keep our guard up while we are on the way, we are outside of the «Area» after all" I continue, as I begin walking toward the forest, it'll take us at least 20 minutes to get there if we go at a fast pace.

"…Area?" Sakura asks, I can't see her face, but I'm pretty sure she is confused

I sigh in disappointment "Anti-Criminal Code Effect Area but most call it the Area to put it short, every town and some areas are inside this 'area' in which you can't receive any damage or attack any players, but once you are outside of town… well, you are vulnerable to being attacked by monsters, and other players as well"

"I see..." She mutters, but after a few seconds she resumes her humming.

I roll my eyes, I guess some people are just like that, they don't worry much over some things, the walk is long and mostly uneventful, I changed the settings of 'my game' to mute the ambient music, it kind-of gets tedious after a while, so the only thing I could hear are our footsteps and Sakura's humming, I'm starting to wonder about her display name, Sakura is a pretty common name after all, maybe she got lucky?

After a while I start getting hungry, it's feels pretty weird when you get hungry in here, you don't even want to know what is happening to you body in real life, I open my inventory and take out the most cost-efficient food so far, a piece of black bread, it honestly tastes like cardboard, but it takes the hunger away for a while.

Several minutes (and a few more Black Breads) we finally arrive at the forest, however, we still have a bit more walking to do until we get to the area I mentioned later

"Monsters will attack once we are inside the forest, get ready" I tell her as I draw my sword, the shine from my blade startling her a bit.

She makes another excited face "It's shiny!" she states, causing a smirk to form on my face.

White Iron Sword +4 It's a monster-drop One-Handed Sword I got about a week ago [3], it has a long, slender and thin blade, almost like a rapier, but not that much, with a shiny white color, since the blade is thin, I initially had trouble with the weight, but after upgrading it to +2 Heaviness, +1 Durability and +1 Sharpness, I must say this sword has served me well.

I look at Sakura and she starts looking a bit impatient, well, have it your way, I make my way into the forest and I can hear her following me, this area is usually filled with Dire Wolfs oddly enough, I don't see any right now, I lead her along a dirt path, she has no trouble with tree branches since she is short, but I've got to tilt my head from time to time to avoid being hit, not like it will do any damage, but it still sucks to hit your head with them, sometimes being tall sucks overall, especially here in SAO, some genius thought it would be a good idea to take the player's height into consideration, there is a scale, the taller you are, the harder you hit, but it also carries a speed and agility penalty, of course, after several levels those small bonuses become irrelevant, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm a bigger target than most players, that's why I prefer shorter avatars, my original one was almost 5 inches shorter than I really am.

The woods around us turn darker and more sinister as we approach my little 'secret' location; a light mist also surrounds us and becomes denser and denser with each step we take, I can practically feel Sakura shivering behind me, which forms a smirk on my face, but before I can say anything, our first predator comes right in front of us.

_Skeleton Militia  
>Level 5<br>_

The undead creature looks at us, a red glow on its eyes, well, where its eyes should be, its white bones are cracked and dusty, and you can clearly see it's missing some bones, it is wearing a leather ripped chest armor with little else, and it holds a hand-axe on its right hand, it stands tall, almost 2 meters if I am right.

"This isn't like your average beast, humanoid foes are capable of using Sword Skills just as we can, so be on your guard, I'll go first" I order as I prepare myself in a battle stance, both hands on my sword and holding it right in front of me, almost like a 'Kendo' stance, but much looser and I change the position of my sword every now and then, depending on my opponent's movement

"Do you remember what I thought you about sword skills?" I call back to her as I take a step forward

She nods "The system reads your pre-skill movement and automatically executes the skill right?" She answers and I nod back to her, pleased with knowing that my lessons have stuck, well, at least the basic concept

"That's right, it would normally be impossible for a regular human being to move at those kinds of speeds, and while it's possible to just randomly swing your sword, it is much less efficient and you should only do it once you have mastered your style" I unconsciously continue as I totally focus myself in the skeleton before me, after a couple of seconds, the skeleton rushes mindlessly towards me in its usual attack pattern, first comes a big over-head swing and then a right-to-left strike, which are both very slow, but high damaging.

I rush to meet the skeleton and dodge both strikes with an ease that was granted from fighting them over and over; this particular enemy has a massive opening after its initial attack, so aggressiveness is key.

I use a «Slant» the most basic of sword skills (it consists of a single diagonal strike) aimed at the skeleton's neck to sever its skull, killing it instantly, the remains disappearing into a bunch of _polygons_ shortly after, a 'loot' screen appears on my interface, but I ignore it for now.

I loosen up my stance and look back at Sakura, who is basically just standing there clapping her hands at the 'show'.

"Don't look so happy, it's your turn" I state as I point toward another Skeleton approaching us, this game doesn't stop surprising me, even among the same monster, there is variety, this one has a different set of bones missing, and this one is wearing a leather helmet and a short-sword, but nothing Sakura can't handle, right now she is only a few levels lower than me.

She unsheathes her weapon of choice a Bandit Dagger It's basically a regular thin, slightly ornamented dagger that has two blades, a main one, and a literally useless second and much shorter one that is just there for decoration on the other end of the handle.

Sakura is a Full Agility-Type, so this slow skeleton should be no big deal for her.

Before the Skeleton can make its first move, Sakura rushes toward it with a pretty impressive rush, I think she may be slightly faster than me, and finishes it off with a couple of Sword Skills that are unknown to me, I've personally never used daggers, she did pretty good, but it took her about four hits to kill the Skeleton where it took me only one.

I hear the noise of several Skeletons making their way toward us, it might take us uhm… maybe 5 minutes?

(A While Later)

The short read-haired girl walks in front of me as we begin making our way towards town earlier than I had planned, reason? Lil' Girl got hungry

I sigh in disappointment, I only managed to advance 5% of the experience I require to level-up, I still need about 15%, so it's not all that bad, I look at the time and notice that there should still be at least 30 minutes until that raid-meeting begins, I know it Is not the best of ideas, I said it myself a little while ago, but if this girl is going to survive, then she needs to learn about Boss-Fights as well, maybe I should take her?

"Hey, Sakura" I call to her, as she happily skips toward town, causing me to walk faster than I'm used to.

"Yeah?" The green-eyed girl turns toward be with a pretty cute and curious look on her face.

I clear my throat "Do you want to go to that boss raid?"

"Yup!" She answers happily and continues skipping toward town, her short red hair jumping up and down as she goes, man, this girl is gonna get me killed one of this days…

After a long and uneventful walk (at a pretty fast pace), we finally arrive back at Tolbana, I buy the girl a snack and we make our way to the Fountain Plaza where the meeting was taking place, we sit at an empty spot all the way to the back, on the same row but several meters away from a black-haired boy and a hooded person, from the long orange-brownish chestnut-cored hair that can be seen from inside the hood I can easily tell that it's a girl, those two seem to be together as well, but I ignore them for now and focus myself on the blue-haired guy explaining the strategy, Somehow I get the feeling we missed an important scene by arriving a bit late.

The time comes when we have to form a group with other players, I look around and notice several players that have been left alone, Solo-Players, it's easy to tell them apart, they usually have higher-end gear when compared to other players, such as my sword and gauntlet, and well, they are alone, but then again, you don't really need to be a Solo-Player to be alone, or I could be wrong and someone in a party got lucky and got good gear, but that's not the point and well, since I have this bouncing ball of charm with me… well, it might not be such a bad idea to try to talk to them…

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><p><strong>And it's a wrap ladies and gentleman, I really hope you liked the prologue, I certainly did the best I could, is Rikio's POV good enough or would you prefer a Third-Person Narrator? Let me know if you can, since I can't really leave the SYOC Form over here, please go look for it in my profile, have fun filling it and PM it to me, I won't read any form in the reviews, but well, all the rules are over there in my profile.<strong>

**Again, be sure to leave lots of reviews! It motivates me to keep going and get better! **


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